Automated luminaire location identification and group assignment using light based communication for commissioning a lighting control system

ABSTRACT

Devices, systems, and methods for automatic luminaire location identification and group assignment using light based communication/visual light communication (VLC)/dark light communication (DLC) for commissioning a lighting control. Further, the devices, systems, and methods provide automated luminaire identification and exact luminaire locations where all luminaire devices are located relative to at least one luminaire to create location identification without knowing the group. The disclosed devices, systems, and methods provide enhanced lighting system commissioning, maintenance, and updating.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 15/643,244 filed Jul. 6, 2017, which claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 62/492,849 filed May 1, 2017. Thisapplication claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationNo. 62/511,300 filed May 25, 2017. The disclosures in each of theapplications identified above are incorporated herein by reference intheir entireties.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

Devices, systems, and methods for automated luminaire locationidentification using light are generally described. In particular,systems and methods for automatic luminaire location identification andgroup assignment using light based communication/visual lightcommunication (VLC)/dark light communication (DLC) for commissioning alighting control are disclosed.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

In lighting control systems with distributed networked/intelligentlighting devices it is imperative that the unique network address ofeach device is correctly identified and associated with its relevantlocations/areas of control to facilitate correct operationalconfiguration of the system.

Current identification methods include, for example, removing adetachable, printed identification (ID) number and/or scan-able codesticker from the lighting device upon installation and fixing theprinted ID to an installation drawing that depicts the location of theassociated lighting device. The installation drawing is later referredto when commissioning/configuring the lighting system.

In another method, a barcode (or other scan-able medium) is removed andaffixed to a drawing for later scanning (or scanned in-situ) and used todirectly update information within a commissioning application (softwareor handheld tool).

In a further method, if the identification of installed, networkeddevice has not been previously recorded, it is then possible to identifythe networked device by pressing a “service pin” (a physical button onthe device) while a commissioning app/tool is in a listening mode. Theaddress of the device is then displayed or assigned to a pre-configured“dummy”/virtual device in the physical location.

Another method involves a wink function, wherein, to facilitateobservational identification of luminaires particularly with networkedDigital Addressable Lighting Interface (DALI®) addressed devices, whichgenerally do not support the previous methods, the network is scannedfor previously un-provisioned devices using a commissioning app/tool.The un-provisioned devices are then listed on a screen. A “wink” optionbutton for each of the results is provided and when selected causes therelated luminaire to flash on and off repeatedly. When witnessed by anengineer, the device address can then be correctly assigned.

An additional method is visual light communication (VLC) over RadioFrequency (RF) communication, which has the advantages of high bandwidthand immunity to interference from electromagnetic sources. VLC refers toan illumination source, which in addition to illumination can sendinformation using the same light signal. VLC(s) are an emerging form ofcommunications that use visual forms of light emitters to communicatedata wirelessly. VLC uses a light source that is frequency-modulatedand/or turned on and off rapidly when transmitting a communication. VLCsystems employ visible light for communication that occupies thespectrum from approximately 380 nm to 750 nm, corresponding to afrequency spectrum of approximately 430 THz to 790 THz. The lowbandwidth problem in RF communication is resolved in VLC because of thelarge bandwidth available in the VLC spectrum. Further, the VLC receiveronly receives signals if they reside in the same room as the transmitterand receivers outside the room of the VLC source will not be able toreceive the signals, contrary to an RF signal which may be received byany receiver configured to the appropriate frequency and within range ofthe RF transmission. Thus, VLC systems do not have certain securityissues that occur in RF communication systems. Moreover, as a visiblelight source can be used both for illumination and communication, VLCsystems save the extra power that is required in RF communication. Thesefeatures of VLC (high bandwidth, no health hazard, low power consumptionand non-licensed channels) have made VLC lighting systems attractive forpractical use. DLC systems similarly use non-visible light, such asinfrared wavelengths, for light-based communications.

Some of the applications using VLC are: Light Fidelity (Li-Fi);vehicle-to-vehicle communication; underwater communication; hospitals;information-displaying signboards; visible light ID systems; WirelessLocal Area Networks (WLANs); dimming; etc. The revolution in the fieldof solid-state lighting has also led to the replacement of manyflorescent lamps by Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), which furthermotivates the usage of VLC because LEDs provide, for example, relativelyhigh intensity light sources with low power consumption.

VLC enabled LED luminaires, in addition to the infrared synchronizationprotocol, enabled inexpensive white LEDs to be time division multiplexedto avoid packet collisions. Luminaires use token message passing toregulate packet transmission.

VLC also enables LED light fixtures to broadcast positioning signalsusing rapid modulation of light in a way that does not affect theirprimary functionality of providing illumination. The positioning signalsare decoded by, e.g., smartphone devices using their built-infront-facing camera (image) sensors and are used to compute the device'sposition in the venue. These positioning signals work like a beacon thatemits information to the environment.

Further, distributed multi-hop VLC provides 360° coverage fordirectionality, and a flexible design.

However, there is a need for unique use of VLC in luminaire industrythat is less expensive particularly in Internet of Things (IoT) basedlighting control systems.

For a VLC to emit location information to the environment, it needs toknow its own location. A specific location inside a room with no GPSaccess is required as the GPS cannot be used for accuracy reasons andthus a lighting device does not know its own location. Further, thegateway that uses the VLC/DLC to communicate either knows the locationor needs to learn the location. The problem associated in finding theexact location of the luminaire relative to the room and to otherluminaires thus do exists and is addressed by the present disclosure.

Further, once the addresses of all luminaire control devices are knownalong with location information, the next process conducted will be toassign them to operational groups, representing areas such as rooms andcorridors. This is ordinarily achieved by manually assigning knownaddressed devices to a group object so that all members can becontrolled by a single command/message when later configured/programmed.

As the size of a single lighting control network grows beyond that of asingle zone of a floor, to the whole floor, the whole building and areasbeyond; the time and labor expended on luminaire/networked deviceidentification will likely be quite extensive. Most presently employedmethods of device identification require some form of direct manualinteraction and/or direct observation of the individual luminaire beingidentified.

With the emergence of Internet of Things (IoT) based lighting controlsystems, the size of a single installation when compared to existinglocalized networked solutions will grow in size significantly due to theabsence of limitations imposed by more localized technologies. As such,in order to reduce the installation and commissioning time for a largeproject based on the issues outlined, the requirement for an automatedmethod of luminaire location identification using light basedcommunication/VLC/DLC becomes apparent.

If during the physical installation of an intelligent lighting controlsystem, all information regarding addresses and locations has beenaccurately mapped and added directly to a commissioning application/toolor drawing, the issue of post-installation identification may notgenerally present a major problem; however from experience this is notalways accurately carried out by electricians/installers and physicalmedia such as installation drawings (with IDs attached) can belost/damaged. Further, when changing devices, or replacing the gatewayor the luminaire, the installer needs to follow a long manual procedurethat is open to errors.

In view of the above, there is a need for a cost effective unique use ofVLC/DLC technology for determining the exact location of the luminairerelative to the room and to other luminaires and grouping of luminairesbased on VLC/DLC modulation techniques. Further, there is a need forsystem and method for automatic luminaire location identification usinglight based communication/VLC/DLC for commissioning a lighting controlin very large ecosystems such as a whole building or a floor, in quickturn-around time and reducing manual efforts.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

This disclosure relates to a system for automated luminaire locationidentification using light. In particular, this disclosure relates to asystem and a method for automatic luminaire location identification andgroup assignment using light based communication/visual lightcommunication (VLC)/dark light communication (DLC) for commissioning alighting control. Further, this disclosure relates to grouping ofluminaires based on light based communication/VLC/DLC modulation forcommissioning a lighting control system. According to one aspect, thesystem includes at least one of a plurality of luminaires and aplurality of LED's, at least one light based communication/VLC/DLCsystem, at least one sensor subsystem, at least one gateway, at leastone network device, at least one cloud server, and at least one networkgateway. The at least one light based communication/VLC/DLC systemincludes at least one transmitter, which may be a gateway configured tocontrol at least one luminaire/LED as a light source, and at least onereceiver comprising at least one photo detector or sensor, said detectorsensor including, for example, cameras, photodiodes andphototransistors, and LEDs. The system may further include at least onedimming control protocol installed in a plurality of lighting devicesand for controlling a plurality of dimming levels of the plurality oflighting devices, and at least one power meter. In an embodiment, the atleast one gateway may be capable of discovering the at least one dimmingcontrol protocol installed in the plurality of lighting devices andcontrolling the dimming levels of the plurality of lighting devices.Further, the gateway may be capable of controlling the power to theluminaire and is capable of dimming the luminaire to 0 or shutting itoff completely. The at least one of the plurality of luminaires and theplurality of LED's is physically or wirelessly connected to the at leastone gateway via at least one dimming control interface. The at least onelight based communication/VLC/DLC system is physically or wirelesslyconnected to the at least one gateway on one side, and to the at leastone plurality of luminaires and the plurality of LED's on other side.The at least one sensor subsystem senses and captures environmental datain real time. For purposes of this disclosure, “real time” meanssubstantial concurrency but does not include any particular timeframe orlimitation. An “environment” refers to the space in which a luminaire orlighting system is installed and “environmental data” refers to aspectsof the environment as discussed throughout this disclosure.

According to an aspect, the at least one sensor subsystem is connectedwith the at least one gateway along with the plurality of luminaires andthe plurality of LED's. In an embodiment, the at least one power meteris connected with the at least one gateway along with the plurality ofluminaires and the plurality of LED's. In an embodiment, the at leastone cloud server is connected via at least one of a wired connection anda wireless connection, with the at least one gateway.

The at least one sensor subsystem senses and gathers output from theluminaires during OFF and ON state and relays the information or data,either wirelessly or through wired connections, to the at least onegateway and/or server either directly or via the gateway. The lightpatterns emitted by the luminaires during OFF and ON state are detectedusing light detection algorithm(s) and stored in the at least one cloudserver. The light patterns emitted by the luminaires during OFF and ONstate are detected using the at least one light basedcommunication/VLC/DLC system receiver on the at least one gateway. Thetransmitter (gateway side) of the at least one light basedcommunication/VLC/DLC system may, for example, control the luminairesuch as to illuminate the luminaire/LED in a manner that represents anidentification code that is unique to the luminaire/LED. The receiverside of other VLC/DLC systems at other gateways and/or luminairelocations will detect the light if they are within its range and therebyrecognize the particular luminaire. Further, the light basedcommunication/VLC/DLC receiver is a directional receiver, whichidentifies the direction of the luminaire from which the information isreceived.

According to another aspect, the disclosure relates to a system and amethod for automatic luminaire location identification and groupassignment using light based communication/visual light communication(VLC)/dark light communication (DLC) for commissioning a lightingcontrol. Further, this disclosure relates to grouping of luminairesbased on light based communication/VLC/DLC modulation for commissioninga lighting control system. The objects are achieved by use of a sensorsubsystem with embedded light based communication/VLC/DLC. The systemincludes at least one of a plurality of luminaires and a plurality ofLED's, at least one sensor subsystem with embedded light basedcommunication/VLC/DLC techniques, at least one gateway, at least onenetwork device, at least one cloud server, and at least one networkgateway. The system may further include at least one dimming controlprotocol installed in a plurality of lighting devices and forcontrolling a plurality of dimming levels of the plurality of lightingdevices, and at least one power meter. In an embodiment, the at leastone gateway may be capable of discovering the at least one dimmingcontrol protocol installed in the plurality of lighting devices andcontrolling the dimming levels of the plurality of lighting devices.Further, the gateway may be capable of controlling the power to theluminaire and is capable of dimming the luminaire to 0 or shutting itoff completely. The at least one of the plurality of luminaires and theplurality of LED's is physically or wirelessly connected to the at leastone gateway via at least one dimming control interface. The at least onesensor subsystem senses and capture environmental data and humanactivities in real time. According to an aspect, the at least one sensorsubsystem is connected with the at least one of the gateway along withthe plurality of luminaires and the plurality of LED's. In anembodiment, the at least one power meter is connected with the at leastone of the gateway along with the plurality of luminaires and theplurality of LED's. In an embodiment, the at least one cloud server isconnected via at least one of a wired connection and a wirelessconnection, with the at least one gateway and/or sensor subsystem.

The at least one sensor subsystem with embedded light basedcommunication/VLC/DLC techniques senses and gathers output from theluminaires during OFF and ON state and relays the information or data,either wirelessly or by wired connections, to the at least one gatewayand/or server either directly or via the gateway. The light patternsemitted by the luminaires during OFF and ON state are detected usinglight detection algorithm and stored in the at least one cloud server.Further a sensor subsystem with embedded light basedcommunication/VLC/DLC techniques gather data or information to sense anactual light intensity of the luminaire at the luminaire and/or arelative power of a received wireless signal from the luminaire.According to an aspect, the sensor subsystem system may include one ormore light based communication/VLC/DLC sensors connected to the gateway.In an aspect, a ball shaped or other geometric shaped multiple face 2Dor semi 2D surface/multiple face 3D or semi 3D surface sensors are usedto identify the direction of the luminaire.

In an embodiment, the light based communication/VLC/DLC sensor is a ringshaped directional sensor, which identifies the direction of theluminaire from which the information is received. In an embodiment, thelight based communication/VLC/DLC sensor is a cube shaped directionalsensor, which identifies the direction of the luminaire from which theinformation is received. In an embodiment, the light basedcommunication/VLC/DLC sensor is a pyramid shaped directional sensor,which identifies the direction of the luminaire from which theinformation is received. In other embodiments, the VLC/DLC sensor maytake any other geometrical form consistent with this disclosure.

In another aspect, the present disclosure is directed to a method forautomatic luminaire location identification and group assignment usinglight based communication/visual light communication (VLC)/dark lightcommunication (DLC) for commissioning a lighting control. In anembodiment, the method may include providing at least one of a pluralityof luminaires and a plurality of LED's, providing at least one sensorsubsystem to capture environmental data in real time, providing at leastone light based communication/VLC/DLC system to gather data orinformation to sense light intensity of one or more luminaires and/orrelative power of a received wireless signal from the luminaires, and toidentify the direction of the luminaire from which the information isreceived, creating a real map or floor plan using data acquired from theat least one light based communication/VLC/DLC system, where allluminaire devices are located relative to the light basedcommunication/VLC/DLC system, thus creating exact locationidentification without knowing the group. The luminaires are groupedbased on the neighbors who communicate with the VLC/DLC sensor and/or aluminaire associated with the VLC/DLC device.

In an embodiment, the method further includes receiving at least onereal time sensing measurement from at least one sensor subsystem.According to an aspect, the at least one sensor subsystem is physicallyor wirelessly connected to the gateway and/or server either directly orvia the gateway, and the real time sensing measurement is received bythe at least one gateway and/or server via at least one sensorinterface. In an embodiment, the at least one power meter is physicallyor wirelessly connected to the at least one gateway. The method mayfurther include transmitting at least one dimming control command basedon the real time sensing measurement to generate a result, towards atleast one of the plurality of luminaires and the plurality of LED's. Thedimming control command may be transmitted by the at least one gatewayvia at least one dimming control interface during a protocol discoveryprocess. According to an aspect, the method further includes measuringat least one generated result via the at least one sensor subsystemand/or the at least one power meter, discovering the at least onedimming control protocol installed in at least one of the plurality ofluminaires and the plurality of LED's, and controlling a dimming levelof at least one of the plurality of luminaires and the plurality ofLED's. In an embodiment, the generated result is measured by thegateway, the dimming control protocol is discovered by the gateway, andthe dimming level is controlled by the gateway.

Embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure enable automaticluminaire identification and group assignment capability using lightbased communication/VLC/DLC for commissioning a lighting control. Theseand other advantages will be apparent from the present disclosure of theembodiments described herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The above and still further features and advantages of embodiments ofthe present disclosure will become apparent upon consideration of thefollowing detailed description of embodiments thereof, especially whentaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a high-level diagram of a system, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 1A is a high-level diagram of a system with sensor subsystem withembedded light based communication/VLC/DLC, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a gateway box diagram including a power meter connection,according to an embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a system, illustrating a sensorconnection to a luminaire, according to an aspect;

FIG. 3A is a perspective view of a ball shaped sensor connection to aluminaire;

FIG. 3B is a perspective view of a system, illustrating a ring shapedsensor connection to a luminaire, according to an aspect;

FIG. 3C is a perspective view of a system, illustrating a cube shapedsensor connection to a luminaire, according to an aspect;

FIG. 3D is a perspective view of a system, illustrating a pyramid shapedsensor connection to a luminaire, according to an aspect;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a type of information/data structurethat is receivable by a sensor interface of a system, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating another type of information/datastructure that is receivable over a power meter interface of a system,according to an embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating automatic luminaire locationidentification and group assignment for commissioning a lighting controlsystem according to an aspect;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a list of protocols and their relatedactions and expected value range for sensor measurements of a system,according to an embodiment; and,

FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating a protocol discovery process of asystem including a discovery algorithm, according to an embodiment.

Various features, aspects, and advantages of the embodiments will becomemore apparent from the following detailed description, along with theaccompanying figures in which like numerals represent like componentsthroughout the figures and text. The various described features are notnecessarily drawn to scale, but are drawn to emphasize specific featuresrelevant to some embodiments.

The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and arenot meant to limit the scope of the description or the claims. Tofacilitate understanding, reference numerals have been used wherepossible, to designate like elements common to the figures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to a system andmethod for automated luminaire identification and group assignment. Thesystem and method facilitate automatic luminaire identification (e.g.,by unique network addresses in a smart lighting system) and groupassignment capability for commissioning a lighting control.Additionally, they provide dimming control, and facilitate ease ofsystem integration associated with the vast size of required system, aswell as ease of use and installation of such systems.

Embodiments of the present disclosure will be illustrated below inconjunction with the various figures.

The term “module” as used herein refers to any known or later developedhardware, software, firmware, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, orcombination of hardware and software that is capable of performing thefunctionality associated with that element. Also, while the presentdisclosure is described in terms of exemplary embodiments, it should beappreciated those individual aspects of the present disclosure can beseparately claimed.

The term “computer-readable medium” as used herein refers to anytangible storage and/or transmission medium that participates in storingand/or providing instructions to a processor for execution. Such amedium may take many forms, including but not limited to nonvolatilemedia, volatile media, and transmission media. Non-volatile mediaincludes, for example, NVRAM, or magnetic or optical disks. Volatilemedia includes dynamic memory, such as main memory. Common forms ofcomputer-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexibledisk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium,magnetooptical medium, a CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards,paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, RAM, PROM,EPROM, FLASH-EPROM, solid state medium like a memory card, any othermemory chip or cartridge, a carrier wave as described hereinafter, orany other medium from which a computer can read. A digital fileattachment to email or other self-contained information archive or setof archives is considered a distribution medium equivalent to a tangiblestorage medium. When the computer-readable media is configured as adatabase, it is to be understood that the database may be any type ofdatabase, such as relational, hierarchical, object-oriented, and/or thelike. Further, while reference is made to various types of databases, itwill be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that all of thedatabase functions may be stored within compartments of a singledatabase, or within individual databases. In any event, the disclosureis considered to include a tangible storage medium or distributionmedium and prior art-recognized equivalents and successor media, inwhich the software implementations of the present disclosure are stored.

According to an aspect and with reference to FIG. 1, a system 100 forautomatic luminaire location identification (unique addresses) and groupassignment capability using light based communication/VLC/DLC forcommissioning a lighting control is described. The system 100 includesat least one of a plurality of luminaires 112 and a plurality of LED's111, at least one light based communication/VLC/DLC system 134, at leastone sensor subsystem 108, a dimming control 110, at least one gateway102 which is a Universal Smart Lighting Gateway (USLG) in the exemplaryembodiment shown in FIG. 1, at least one cloud server 106, and at leastone network gateway 108. In an embodiment, the luminaire 112 is a systemthat may include a single luminaire or multiple luminaires connectedwith a single common interface to power lines 120, 124 and dimmingcontrol lines 122, 126. In the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 1,server 106 is a cloud server. In the same or other embodiments, one ormore servers associated with the system 100 may be cloud-based servers,centralized servers, local servers, or other server/system managementdevices according to particular needs.

The luminaire 112 is connected to one or more sensors found in the atleast one sensor subsystem 108. The sensors may be connected to the atleast one gateway 102, which is a device configured to control andcommunicate with the luminaire 112. The sensors may also be connected tothe server 106 by wireless or wired connections either directly or viathe gateway 102. The sensor subsystem 108 may include at least one of acolor sensor and at least one environment sensor. The at least one colorsensor is up looking, i.e., faces at least one luminaire directly andmeasures at least one of an actual color content and light intensity ofthe at least one luminaire/LED at the luminaire. The at least oneenvironment sensor is downward looking, i.e., faces away from theluminaire(s), and measures one or more aspects of the environment inwhich the luminaire is installed. The at least one environment sensorcomprises, in an exemplary embodiment, at least one of an ambient lightsensor, orientation sensor, movement detection sensor, and a temperaturesensor.

According to an aspect, a power meter 114 may be connected electricallybetween the gateway 102 and the luminaire 112 and may be connectedelectrically to the luminaire 112 via the power lines 120, 124. Thepower meter 114 may be connected to the gateway 102 via the power meterinterface 132.

As illustrated in the exemplary embodiment in FIG. 1, the sensorsubsystem 108 connects via connection 130 to the luminaire, and via asensor interface 128 to the at least one gateway 102. The at least onesensor subsystem 108 detects information related to the system 100 andthe luminaires 112 by detecting current conditions of at least one ofthe luminaires 112. The sensor subsystem 108 includes one or moresensors (e.g., environment sensors) to sense and capture environmentaldata and human activities such as motion, direction, footfall (i.e., thenumber of people passing through a space in a given time), ambient lightlevel and temperature, light intensity or output, operating temperature,humidity, etc. The sensor subsystem 108 also includes one or moresensors (e.g., color sensors) to measure actual color content and lightintensity at the luminaire 112. The gateway 102 controls the dimminglevel of the luminaire 112 and receives power consumption informationfor the luminaire 112 from power meter 114. Thus, the current operatingconditions of the luminaire(s) 112 can be detected and known at anygiven time. The information or data is relayed to the gateway 102, whichrelays the information or data to the cloud server 106 for storage andprocessing as described throughout this disclosure.

In the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the at least one lightbased communication/VLC/DLC system 134 is physically connected to the atleast one gateway 102 via connection 138 on one side, and to the atleast one plurality of luminaires 112 and the plurality of LED's 111 viaconnection 136 on other side. In other embodiments, one or more of theconnections between VLC/DLC system 134, gateway 102, luminaire 112,and/or other components of the system 100 may be a wired (physical) orwireless connection. The at least one light based communication/VLC/DLCsystem 134 includes at least one transmitter which, in the exemplarydisclosed embodiments, may be gateway 102, comprising at least one LEDas light source and at least one receiver comprising of at least onephoto detector or sensor, said photo detector or sensor including, forexample, cameras, photodiodes and phototransistors, and LEDs. In otherembodiments, the VLC/DLC system 134 may have a transmitter that isseparate but in communication with gateway 102 and configured to controlillumination of at least one luminaire 112/LED 111 as disclosed.

The light based communication/VLC/DLC receiver converts the analog lightsignal or data as received from the luminaire 112/LED 111 controlled bya transmitter to digital values using three modules namely a lightsensor to measure the intensity, an amplifier to strengthen the sensoroutput, and an analog-to-digital converter to obtain digital values ordata. The light based communication/VLC/DLC receiver detects informationrelated to the luminaires 112 by detecting current conditions of atleast one of the luminaires 112 including light intensity of theluminaire 112 received at the VLC/DLC receiver, relative power of awireless signal received at the VLC/DLC receiver, and a direction of theluminaire 112 from which the information is received. At the light basedcommunication/VLC/DLC transmitter/gateway 102 side, the luminaire112/LED 111 is instructed to transmit information or data (as light) toeither identify the luminaire and/or provide light data (as describedfurther below) using at least one of the light basedcommunication/VLC/DLC modulation techniques. In an aspect, the data orinformation or signal is mostly modulated using intensity. In anembodiment, the modulation techniques include On-Off-Keying (OOK), PulseTime Modulation (PTM), Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM), Frequency ShiftKeying (FSK), Phase Shift Keying (PSK), Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiplexing (OFDM), and Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM). Thetransmitter may instruct the luminaire 112/LED 111 to illuminate in amanner that transmits a unique identification of the luminaire 112/LED111, such as an identification code. The VLC/DLC receiver may use datasuch as the light intensity or wireless signal strength received at theVLC/DLC sensor to determine a relative distance of a transmittingluminaire 112 from the VLC/DLC sensor. For example, a low lightintensity or signal power from a first luminaire relative to a secondluminaire may indicate that the first luminaire is farther from theVLC/DLC sensor than the second luminaire. Relatively high lightintensity or signal power from the first luminaire may indicate that thefirst luminaire is closer. The light based communication/VLC/DLCreceiver is also configured as a directional receiver to identify thedirection of the luminaire 112 from which light is received at theVLC/DLC sensor.

In an aspect, the use of light based communication/VLC/DLC system mayturn on a luminaire device that may modulate a specific information ordata at a specific power level and frequency. The information or data isused to identify the luminaire device and light intensity or signalpower from the luminaire 112 is used to gauge the relative distance tothe luminaire device. The relative location of the luminaire device isdetermined algorithmically along with a suggested grouping of luminairesbased on neighboring luminaires that can communicate with thetransmitting luminaire device at the power level and frequency of thelight and/or wireless signal transmitted by the transmitting luminaire.The information or data that include location and directionidentification of the luminaire device itself is relayed to the at leastone gateway 102 in the exemplary embodiment, although in otherembodiments information may be sent by wired or wireless connectionsfrom various system components to server 106 directly or via gateway 102or backhaul interface 118, depending upon individual systemconfigurations consistent with this disclosure. The gateway 102 in theexemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is configured to receiveinformation related to the plurality of luminaires 112. The informationor data is relayed to the gateway 102, which relays the information ordata to the cloud server 106 for storage, processing and the like.Processing is done at the cloud server 106 based on the information ordata for identifying and grouping the luminaires 112.

The gateway 102 is configured to gather and communicate the sensorsubsystem 108 output of the at least one of the plurality of luminaires112 and the plurality of LED's 111 and light based communication/VLC/DLC134 output to the cloud server 106. In an aspect, the gateway 102 may becapable of detecting, communicating and handling/controlling a pluralityof dimming protocols via the dimming control device 110, and to controlthe dimming control device 110 to provide a plurality of dimming levelsto the luminaires 112. The output from the sensor subsystem 108 is fedto the cloud server 106 through the gateway 102 and network gateway 104.The cloud server 106 may communicate information or data to a userdevice with a user interface. A real map or floor plan is created usingdata acquired from the at least one light based communication/VLC/DLCsystem 134, where all luminaire devices are located relative to thelight based communication/VLC/DLC system 134, thus creating locationidentification without knowing the group. The data acquired from the atleast one light based communication/VLC/DLC system 134 includes thelight intensity and direction of the luminaire 112 from which the lightis received at the VLC/DLC system 134. Relatively low power from theluminaire 112 may indicate that the luminaire 112 is at a fartherdistance. Relatively high power from the luminaire 112 may indicate thatthe luminaire 112 is at a shorter or closer distance. A user may obtainthe updates and status of the luminaires 112 in an environment throughone or more gateways 102. The gateway 102 receives control function fromthe user through the user device to actuate the luminaires 112 withcontrol parameters from remote location.

According to an aspect of the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 1, theconnection 130 to the luminaire 112 is physical and is not limited to aspecific location. In the same or other embodiments, the connection 130may include a wireless connection. The location of the sensor subsystem108 may be different for various types of sensors that are to bepositioned. As seen in FIG. 3, for instance, physical sensor interfacesand connections may include the sensor interface 128 connected to thegateway 102. The gateway 102 is capable of communicating and handlingthe plurality of sensors and sensor protocols via its sensor interface128. Embodiments in accordance with the disclosure do not limit the typeof wireless or hardware/wire/bus interfaces between the gateway 102 andthe sensor subsystem 108, e.g., the wireless protocol, number of wires,the type of wires or bus connectors. The connections can be as simple asanalog interface connectors and/or electrical/digital bus connectors ofany kind. According to an aspect and with reference to FIG. 1, thesystem 100 further includes a backhaul interface 118 connected to thegateway 102 and the network gateway 104. The backhaul interface 118 maybe wired or wireless Local Area Network (LAN), including one or more ofMesh Bluetooth Low Energy (Mesh BLE), Smart Mesh, Bluetooth Mesh, WLAN,ZigBee, and/or Ethernet LAN. In an embodiment, the backhaul interface118 is Mesh BLE. According to an aspect, the gateway 102 is connectedwith the network gateway 104, which resides between the local networksto a Wide Area Network (WAN) 116. In an embodiment, the WAN 116 connectsthe gateway 102 to the cloud computers/servers 106 for operational andmanagement interfaces.

FIG. 2 depicts the gateway 102 in further detail. According to anaspect, a soft switch 202 to select between different electrical dimminginterfaces is provided. The soft switch 202 may be actively used tosearch for the correct protocol between the gateway 102 and theluminaire 112 (not shown in this figure). The luminaire 112 may be adimming luminaire 112. According to an aspect, protocol modules 228,230, and 232 are the software implementation of the dimming interfacesthat reside in the gateway 102. In an embodiment, the supported dimmingprotocol include several sets of protocols, such as, for example,0V-10V, 1V-10V, Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) 228, protocols over 0V-10Vand/or 1V to 10V, a 24V DALI® 230 protocol, and a 5V Digital Multiplex(DMX) 232 protocol. The protocols may each include algorithms, which maybe implemented in a Micro Controller Unit 2 (MCU-2) 204. According to anaspect, the MCU-2 204 is powered by an AC to DC 5V, 24V power module 220via a power line connection 240. MCU-2 204 may also be connected to apower meter 114 via a Micro Controller Unit 1 e.g., MCU-1 and aUniversal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) 224. According to anaspect, MCU-2 204 is also connected to a Relay 206. MCU-2 204 may alsobe connected to a Wireless Interface Module (WIM) 210 via a SerialPeripheral Interface (SPI) bus 212. In an embodiment, the MCU-2 204 alsocontrols the Relay 206, which may be designed to cut off/block thecurrent to the luminaire 112 upon a decision by the MCU-2 204. The powercutoff can be used to disconnect power from the controlled luminairesubsystem (for example, FIG. 1). In an embodiment, the WIM 210 isimplemented as Bluetooth Low Power (BLE) device that uses the Mesh BLEprotocol to connect with other devices, as well as having the SPI bus212 and an Inter-Integrated Circuit Two-Wire Serial Interface bus (TWSI)216. The WIM 210 is connected to the Camera Interface System (CIS)module 214, which may be, for instance, an environmental sensor and aRed, Green, Blue (RGB) and/or Yellow, Red, Green, Blue (YRGB) colorsensor combination device. In the disclosed exemplary embodiments, thecolor sensor is a Red, Green, Blue (RGB) sensor, although any colorsensor consistent with this disclosure may be used. The CIS module 214can be extended via a second TWSI bus 226 with other sensor modules. TheCIS module 214 may require a clock, which is received via an ACFrequency to a clock module interface 218. The WIM 210 may requirepower, which is typically received via the AC to DC 5V, 24V power module220 via the power interface line 240. According to an aspect, an ACPower 90V-240V power module 222 is relayed to the MCU-2 204 via a LineControl (LNNL) 234, and relayed from the MCU-2 204 to the soft switch202 for power selection for the dimming protocol interfaces. The ACPower module 222 may also be relayed to the power meter 114 via the LNNL234, which measures all power delivered to the luminaire 112. The LNNL234 illustrated in FIG. 2, and according to an aspect, provides thephysical electrical line connections.

The power meter 114 connections are described in further detail, withreference to FIG. 2. The power meter 114 may be connected to an inputline of the luminaire 112 (as shown in FIG. 1), in such a way that thepower meter 114 measures electrical power drawn by the luminaire 112 atany given moment in real-time. According to an aspect, the power meter114 is connected to the gateway 102 to provide real time powermeasurements correlated 1-1 to luminaire power drawn at any givenmoment. The interface 132 between the gateway 102 and the power meter114 may be a Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) or othercommunication interface (“power meter interface”). The interface 120,124 between the power meter device 114 and the luminaire 112 may dependon the type of power meter 114 being used. A person of ordinary skill inthe art will appreciate the know-how associated with power meterconnections.

According to another aspect and as shown in FIG. 1A, the disclosurerelates to a system and a method for automatic luminaire locationidentification and group assignment using light basedcommunication/visual light communication (VLC)/dark light communication(DLC) for commissioning a lighting control. Further, this disclosurerelates to grouping of luminaires based on light basedcommunication/VLC/DLC modulation for commissioning a lighting controlsystem. The objects are achieved by use of sensor subsystem withembedded light based communication/VLC/DLC. The system 100 includes atleast one of a plurality of luminaires 112 and a plurality of LED's 111,at least one sensor subsystem 108 with embedded light basedcommunication/VLC/DLC techniques, at least one gateway 102, at least onenetwork device, at least one cloud server 106, and at least one networkgateway 104. The system 100 may further include at least one dimmingcontrol protocol 110 installed in a plurality of lighting devices andfor controlling a plurality of dimming levels of the plurality oflighting devices, and at least one power meter 114. In an embodiment,the at least one gateway 102 may be capable of discovering the at leastone dimming control protocol installed in the plurality of lightingdevices and controlling the dimming levels of the plurality of lightingdevices. Further, the gateway 102 may be capable of controlling thepower to the luminaire 112 and is capable of dimming the luminaire 112to 0 or shutting it off completely. The at least one of the plurality ofluminaires 112 and the plurality of LED's 111 is physically orwirelessly connected to the at least one gateway 102 via at least onedimming control interface. The at least one sensor subsystem 108 sensesand captures environmental data and human activities in real time.According to an aspect, the sensor subsystem 108 connects via connection130 to the luminaire, and via a sensor interface 128 to the at least onegateway 102. The at least one sensor subsystem 108 detects informationrelated to the system 100 and the luminaires 112 by detecting currentconditions of at least one of the luminaires 112. In an embodiment, theat least one power meter is connected with the at least one of thegateway along with the plurality of luminaires 112 and the plurality ofLED's 111. In an embodiment, the at least one cloud server 106 isconnected via at least one of a wired connection and a wirelessconnection, with the at least one gateway 102 and/or the sensorsubsystem 108. According to an aspect, a power meter 114 may beconnected electrically between the gateway 102 and the luminaire 112 andmay be connected electrically to the luminaire 112 via the power lines120, 124. The power meter 114 may be connected to the gateway 102 viathe power meter interface 132.

The at least one sensor subsystem 108 with embedded light basedcommunication/VLC/DLC techniques senses and gathers output from theluminaires 112 during OFF and ON state and relays the information ordata either by wired or wireless connection to the at least one gateway102 and/or server 106 either directly or via gateway 102. The lightpatterns emitted by the luminaires 112 during OFF and ON state aredetected using light detection algorithm(s) and stored in the at leastone cloud server 106. Further, sensor subsystem 108 with embedded lightbased communication/VLC/DLC techniques gathers data or information toidentify the relative distance of a luminaire, such as sense relativelight intensity or power of a received wireless signal. According to anaspect, the sensor subsystem system 108 may include one or more lightbased communication/VLC/DLC sensors connected to the gateway 102. In anaspect, a ball shaped or other geometric shaped multiple face 2D or semi2D surface/multiple face 3D or semi 3D surface sensors are used toidentify the direction of the luminaire.

As illustrated in FIG. 3A, the luminaire 112 is connected to a ballshaped sensor 308 to identify the direction of the luminaire using 3dimensionality, said sensor 308 is a VLC/DLC transceiver to identify thedirection of the luminaire from which the information is received.

According to an aspect, and as illustrated in FIGS. 3B, 3C and 3D, thesystem 300 may include one or more light based communication/VLC/DLCsensors 308, 310, 318, and/or 328 typically configured as CIS modules,connected to the gateway 102. In an aspect, a ball shaped or othergeometric shaped multiple face 3D or semi 3D surface sensors are used toidentify the direction of the luminaire. In an embodiment, the lightbased communication/VLC/DLC sensor is a ball shaped directional sensor308 which identifies the direction of the luminaire 112 from which theinformation is received as illustrated in FIG. 3B. In an embodiment, andas shown in FIG. 3C the light based communication/VLC/DLC sensor is acube shaped directional sectorized sensor 318 which identifies thedirection of the luminaire 112 from which the information is received.Based on the active receiving pixels, the direction from which theinformation received may be identified. In an embodiment, and as shownin FIG. 3D the light based communication/VLC/DLC sensor is a pyramidshaped directional sensor 328 which identifies the direction of theluminaire 112 from which the information is received.

FIGS. 3, 3B, 3C and 3D illustrate exemplary embodiments that include atleast one of a first CIS module 308 and a second CIS module 310. (Onlyone connection is actually depicted, but one or both of the sensors 308,310 can be connected to the gateway 102.) According to an aspect, theCIS modules 308, 310 may include a physical interface 306 with thegateway 102 via a TWSI connection that uses a 6 or 8 pin FPC cable andconnector in the exemplary embodiments shown in FIGS. 3-3D. In the sameor other embodiments, one or more connections may be wireless. The CISmodules 308, 310 may be physically connected at any desired position onthe luminaire 112 (not shown). According to an aspect, the CIS module308 is a linear module that can be adapted to fit on luminaires112/devices that require a linear fitting. In an embodiment, the CISmodule 310 is circular, and may be designed to fit circular-shapedluminaires 112.

In an embodiment, each of the CIS 308 and CIS 310 sensors include atleast two sets of sensors (not shown). A first set of sensors (e.g.,“environment sensors”) may be dedicated to environment sensing, and maybe arranged such that it faces away from and/or extends in a downwardlyfashion, from the luminaire 112. According to an aspect, a second set ofsensors or a single sensor (e.g., a “color sensor”/“RGB sensor”) isarranged in an up looking fashion such that it faces the luminaire 112directly. The combination of the two sets of sensors, namely theenvironment sensor and the RGB sensor, may be combined into a singleApplication Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) or may be arranged as aset of separate devices. According to an aspect, the first and secondset of sensors of the CIS 308 and CIS 310 modules may also connecteither wirelessly or by wired connection with the gateway 102 and/or theserver 106 either directly or via the gateway 102. Both sets of sensorsmay provide real time measurements and assessments to the gateway 102.In response to the measurements and assessments provided, the gateway102 may control the dimming device and change the dimming level and acolor temperature and RGB/RGBW (Red Green Blue Warm White) color, indevices that allow for color temperature and RGB/RGBW color control.

According to an aspect, the system 100 includes the up looking RGBsensor directly facing the luminaires 112 (not shown). The RGB sensormay measure both the RGB content of a light source and the actual lightintensity of the light source at the light source. According to anaspect, the RGB sensor or combination of sensors is configured tomeasure multiple color channels as they directly face the luminaires112.

The environment sensor may be a low resolution imaging sensor, such asan array of sensors combined into a low resolution imaging device, or asingle ASIC that is an imaging sensor. According to an aspect, theenvironment sensor measures environmental parameters and is/are facingaway from the luminaries. The environment sensor is configured tomonitor the environment in which the light source is installed.According to an aspect, the environment sensor includes at least threedifferent types of sensors, such as, a low-resolution image sensor, anambient light sensor, and a temperature sensor. Without limitation, thisdisclosure refers to the three sensors included in the environmentsensor as “environment sensor”. In an embodiment, the environment sensorincludes several environmental sensors. In other words, the environmentsensor may include less or more sensors than described herein.Embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure can use othersensors and more types of sensors to sense the environment. According toan aspect, the environment sensor is a single sensor ASIC. Theenvironment sensor can be any sensor that is capable of collectingenough information to measure the environment, including ambient lightand temperature.

According to an aspect, the combination of the environment sensor andthe color sensor is set into one of a single ASIC or a set of separatedevices, all of which are also connected to the gateway 102. The sensorsmay be directed as follows: the color sensor faces the luminaires, andthe environment sensor faces away from the luminaires in such a way thatit monitors the environment. Real time measurements and assessments maybe conveyed to the gateway 102 by the sensors that make up the sensorsubsystem 108.

According to an aspect, the environment and color sensors of the sensorsubsystem are placed/connected on a fitting of the luminaire. The exactlocation of the sensors is not fixed, e.g., two different luminaires bythe same manufacturer of the same type of fitting and LED specificationsmay be assembled such that the sensor location is different relative tothe surface and dimensions of the fitting. Thus, the location of thecolor and environment sensors on the fitting is not limited. Therequirement of placing the color and environment sensors on the fittingat specific locations is mitigated by this disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of a sensor interface data structure400. According to an aspect, the sensor interface is the TWSI 216 thatallows the use of memory-mapped registers to communicate informationbetween the WIM 210 and the CIS module 214. In turn, the WIM 210 mayprovide this information and receive directives from the Board MCU-MCU 2204 via a SPI bus 212. The sensor module interface 212 can be very richand may be distinct for each of the particular sensor devices 800 usedin various configurations. As illustrated in FIG. 4, and according to anaspect, the sensor devices 400 may include multiple registers associatedwith any/all of its functions. FIG. 4 depicts some of the features toexemplify the data structure. In an embodiment, the interface 216, 226with the sensor device is an array of eight bit (8-bit) registers (see,for instance, Sensor Global Configuration Register Interfaces 414 and416). Each may be mapped to a specific memory address on the WIM 210. Inan embodiment, a plurality of interfaces 414, 416, 418 is provided tocontrol the sensors 400. In the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 4, anexample of a register, such as a Sensor Global Configuration RegisterInterface 414 is illustrated. The Sensor Global Configuration RegisterInterface 414 may be set as follows: the register in address 0x01 willturn on bits associated with available sensors on the module. If asensor does not exist, its bit may be set to 0. Available sensors inthis embodiment may be: Ambient Light Sensor (“ALS”), Motion detectionbased on PIR (“PIR”), RGB sensor (“RGB”), Motion detection and directionbased on frame capture (“MOT”), LED Lumen sensor (“LL”), and Temperaturesensor (“TEMP”). According to an aspect, the register address 0x02 isused as an alarm for the different sensors; e.g., one can set the valuerange so that when reached by the specific sensor the appropriate alarmbit in this register will turn to 1, or else it is 0. The register inaddress 0x03 may be used for resetting sensor alarms when this occurs.According to an aspect, the register in address 0x04 is used to power ONand/or OFF the entire sensors' system. The register in address 0x05 maybe used for configuration management. Typical registers can be found inregister addresses found in 0x06-0x08, as well as 0x20-0x28 and0x50-0x59. These are merely examples, as one of ordinary skill in theart would understand—additional sensors would expand (or constrict) theregisters.

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment 500 of the power meter 114, which maybe used in the system 100. Any known ‘power meter device consistent withthis disclosure may be used. According to an aspect, the power meter 114may be wirelessly or physically connected with and/or have physicalconnectivity within the USLG 102 (see, for example, FIG. 1). In oneembodiment, the list of information that is communicated by the powermeter 114 via the UART includes: RMS Voltage, Voltage THD, RMS current,Current THD, Active Power, Reactive power, Apparent power, Power factor,and Frequency. Various mixed signal microcontrollers 204, such as thosesold by Texas Instruments under the Manufacturer's Code “MSP43012041”may be used by the system 100 and are able to communicate with the powermeter 114.

In general, aspects of the present disclosure describe a method forautomatic luminaire location identification and group assignment usinglight based communication/visual light communication (VLC)/dark lightcommunication (DLC) for commissioning a lighting control. Further, thisdisclosure relates to grouping of luminaires based on light basedcommunication/VLC/DLC modulation for commissioning a lighting controlsystem. Embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure provide anautomated method of identifying luminaire location where all luminairedevices are located relative to a particular luminaire and/or lightbased VLC/DLC sensor system thus creating location identificationwithout previously knowing the group of luminaires. The method mayinclude the system providing at least one of a plurality of luminairesand a plurality of LED's, providing at least one sensor subsystem tosense and capture environmental data of the luminaires in real time,wherein the plurality of luminaires are connected to a plurality ofsensors. In an embodiment, the plurality of sensors is simultaneouslyconnected to at least one gateway, which is capable of gathering andcommunicating the sensed data of the plurality of luminaires. The methodfurther consists of the forwarding, by the gateway 102, those receivedsensor output along with power readings of the plurality of luminaires112 over wired/wireless networks 118 and via Wide Area Network (“WAN”)116 to the cloud servers 106 for further processing. The output or datafrom the sensor subsystem 108 and/or the VLC/DLC sensor system 134 isfed to the cloud server 106 via the at least one gateway 102 and networkgateway 104 according to the exemplary system embodiments shown in FIGS.1 and 1A. In the same or other embodiments, the sensor subsystem 108,VLC/DLC sensor subsystem 134, or other components of system 100, such asthe power meter 114, may communicate data either wirelessly or by wiredconnections to the gateway 102 and/or the server 106 either directly orvia gateway 102. The cloud server 106 may communicate data to a userdevice with a user interface, thereby enabling automatic locationidentification of the luminaires within an environment. A user mayobtain the updates and status of the luminaires in an environmentthrough the gateway 102. The gateway 102 may receive control functionfrom the user device to actuate the luminaires 112 with controlparameters from a remote location.

One aspect of the method may include interfacing by the gateway 102 witha plurality of other control systems and/or devices via at least a wiredconnection, an Ethernet connection, a wireless connection or acombination thereof. According to an aspect, the gateway 102 receivescontrol function(s) from a user device to actuate the luminaires 112with control parameters from a remote location via its interface. Theinterface present in the gateway may be a backhaul interface 118 runninga backhaul protocol. In an embodiment, the backhaul protocol isresponsible for delivering control functions to the gateway to actuatethe luminaires with control parameters from remote location.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow chart of an aspect and a method 600 of asystem 100. According to an aspect, system 100 is configured to performvarious high-level system operations 602 via the server 106 (see FIG.1), and in particular is configured to perform automatic luminairelocation identification (unique addresses) for commissioning a lightingcontrol system within an environment. The method includes at step 604,the at least one sensor subsystem detects information related to thesystem and the luminaires by detecting current conditions of at leastone of the luminaires. A downward looking environment sensor, forexample, senses and captures environmental data and human activitiessuch as motion, direction, footfall, ambient light level andtemperature, operating temperature, etc. An up looking color sensor, forexample, measures at least an actual light intensity of the luminaire atthe luminaire. Thus, the current operating conditions and statuses ofthe luminaires can be detected and relayed to the gateway 102 and to theserver 106 along with other factors such as the dimming level (from thegateway 102) and the power consumption (from the power meter 114). Atstep 606, light information from a transmitting luminaire is captured atthe light based communication/VLC/DLC system and used to identify eitherthe luminaire or the data alone using at least one of the light basedcommunication/VLC/DLC modulation techniques. At step 608, the lightinformation captured at the VLC/DLC system from the transmittingluminaire is used to determine a relative distance of the transmittingluminaire from the VLC/DLC system based on the light intensity receivedat the light based communication/VLC/DLC system. At step 610, lightbased communication/VLC/DLC receiver identifies the direction of theluminaire from which the light information is received. The informationor data is used to identify the luminaire device and power from theluminaire is used to gauge the relative distance to the luminairedevice. The acquired data from the light information that is received atthe VLC/DLC system is relayed to the server 106 via the gateway 102 inthe exemplary disclosed embodiments. At step 612, the server 106generates a real map or floor plan using the light information dataacquired from the at least one light based communication/VLC/DLC system.At step 614, all luminaire devices are located relative to the VLC/DLCsystem (and/or associated luminaire) thus creating exact locationidentification for each luminaire without knowing a group to which theluminaire(s) belong. At step 616, processing is done at the cloud server106 to group the identified luminaires based on which neighboringluminaires can communicate with respective transmitting luminairedevices and/or VLC/DLC systems.

The method further comprises assigning a unique address to theluminaires within the lighting control system and to a plurality oflighting control groups based on relative location identification of theluminaires in the map.

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment 700 of a protocol list data structure710 for the gateway 102. The data structure 710 may be designed suchthat it is easy to traverse the protocol options and pick the correctprotocol during the discovery process. The protocol list includes Nprotocols, were N can be any number. In an embodiment, each protocol (X702, Y 704, Z 706 . . . W 708) contains directives to the gateway 102 tosetup the specific protocol interface (e.g., power level, specific lineconnections, and other required information as dictated by the protocolstandard interface). Further, each protocol may contain a set ofdirectives/actions numbered 1-N. The discovery process may use thesedirectives to take actions like sending a message or changing thevoltage level over the dimming control lines. According to an aspect,each action in the list is associated with a list of sensor measurementranges, one per sensor and per power meter. These measurement ranges maybe compared with actual readings as part of the dimming protocoldiscovery process. In an embodiment, at least one of the protocols,without limitation, can be marked as a default protocol W 708. Accordingto an aspect, this is the protocol to which the gateway 102 will defaultinto when no other protocol is discovered.

FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment 800 of the protocol discovery process802. According to an aspect, at step 804, the protocol is determinedfrom a list of protocols, as seen, for instance, in FIG. 7. At step 806,the process may include retrieving/taking/assuming a protocol from thelist of protocols, and mark it as the “current protocol”. The currentprotocol may include a dimming control protocol. At step 808, the systemmay check if the entire list of protocols is finished. If the list iscompleted ‘Yes’, then the next step of operation goes to step 810, whichmay indicate that there has been a failure to identify a protocol. In anembodiment, when a current protocol that has passed all of theverifications correctly is found, proper identification of the protocoland/or the identification process will be successfully achieved. If thelist is not finished, ‘No’, then the next step of operation may go tostep 812. According to an aspect, at step 812, the system activates thenext action inside the protocol, and takes measurements via the sensors,based on a previously identified range. In other words, at step 812, thesystem expects the measurements to be in specific ranges using thecurrent protocol. In an embodiment, the method further includesreceiving at least one real time sensing measurement from at least onesensor subsystem. The gateway 102 may utilize the at least one real timesensing measurement to correlate between the at least one dimmingcontrol protocol and between the plurality of luminaires. The sensorsubsystem may be configured substantially as described hereinabove andillustrated in FIG. 3, and may include at least one of a color sensorand an environmental sensor. Each of the sensor subsystem and the powermeter may be physically connected to the at least one gateway 102, andthe real time sensing measurement may be received by the at least onegateway 102 via at least one sensor interface. According to an aspect,the gateway 102 may be connected to the at least one power meter via aUniversal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter interface. According to anaspect, the gateway 102 may also be connected to at least one networkgateway 104 in a backhaul interface 118 via at least one of a LAN, aWLAN, a WAN, and a Mesh BLE radio network. In an embodiment, at leastone network gateway 104 is connected to at least one cloud server 106via the WAN.

At step 814, the system may check whether the entire list of actions hasbeen finished/completed. If the actions are finished, ‘Yes’, then thenext step of operation is step 816, which may include determining thatthe current protocol is a good choice/fit for the system, and theprotocol may be finalized. According to an aspect, at step 820, afterthe protocol is found, the system saves the default baseline sensorreadings for future use. In an embodiment, at step 822 the process ends.According to an aspect, if the actions are not finished in step 814,‘No’, then the next step of operation may be step 818 where the systemsends signals to the dimmer, waits a short period of time and readssensor measurements.

In an embodiment, step 824 may follow step 818. According to an aspect,at step 824, the measurement, such as, for example, the real timesensing measurement, is taken to see if they are within expectations. If‘Yes’, measurement is within expectations then the system moves back tostep 812 to select the next action in the protocol verification process.If ‘No’, such as, for instance, measurement is outside the normal range,the system may move back to step 806, where it will pick a new protocolto check. The steps in the process may include the following: Theprotocol list at step 806 includes a pointer to the ‘next protocol’ andmarks it as current protocol at step 804 in use with this device. If noprotocol is the ‘next protocol’, the pointer may be pointing to an emptyprotocol indicating that the beginning of the list is next. Thealgorithm's first step is to advance the last protocol pointer to thenext protocol in the list. If there are no protocols, e.g., afteradvancing through the end with an empty protocol, then there are no moreprotocols to check and the algorithm chooses the default protocol in thelist, or simply exits with failure. In case the protocols list is notexhausted, there is a valid ‘current protocol’ to verify. The gatewaysets up the dimming control lines to match the requirements of the‘current protocol’.

For every action in the ‘current protocol’, the gateway may take thisaction, wait a given amount of time associated with this action withinthe ‘current protocol’ action record information, and then read currentsensor measurements. If any of the measurements are outside thecorrelated range indicated by the sensor records list associated withthis ‘current protocol’ and action, the gateway may move to the nextprotocol and start from the beginning to verify this new protocol. Incases where the sensor measurements meet the expected measurementsindicated in the sensors list data range, the gateway may proceed to thenext action in the list of ‘current protocol’. In cases when there areno more actions to measure within the ‘current protocol’, the gatewaymay choose this ‘current protocol’ as the correct protocol for thisdevice.

Protocol discovery can happen for multiple reasons. For example, whenprotocol discovery is initiated due to change in luminaire or when a newluminaire is being connected, the discovery protocol may add a step inwhich the base sensor parameters are updated to reflect thecharacteristics of the new luminaire. According to an aspect, thisaction helps set expected values and tune dimming parameters to sensorreadings, such that appropriate correlation can be achieved. The gatewaymay keep historical correlated values for its sensor to enablecorrelation that is time dependent. For example, LED-based luminairelumen values and the sensor readings may be impacted by the lumen stateof the LED, and the lumen state and readings of the LED may deteriorateover time. According to an aspect, retaining/keeping historical oraccumulated information may allow the gateway system to identify changein readings over time and to adjust the dimming directives to reflectthe requested dimming level correctly. According to an aspect, the atleast one gateway may distinguish between a digital protocol and atleast one analog protocol. In an embodiment, the digital protocolincludes one of DALI® and DMX, and the analog protocol includes one of0V-10V and 1V-10V.

The components of the system illustrated are not limited to the specificembodiments described herein, but rather, features illustrated ordescribed as part of one embodiment can be used on or in conjunctionwith other embodiments to yield yet a further embodiment. It is intendedthat the system include such modifications and variations. Further,steps described in the method may be utilized independently andseparately from other steps described herein.

The system and method have been described above, with reference tospecific embodiments; it will be understood by those skilled in the artthat various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted forelements thereof without departing from the scope contemplated. Inaddition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situationor material to the teachings found herein without departing from theessential scope thereof.

The present disclosure, in various embodiments, configurations andaspects, includes components, methods, processes, systems and/orapparatus substantially depicted and described herein, including variousembodiments, sub-combinations, and subsets thereof. Those of skill inthe art will understand how to make and use the present disclosure afterunderstanding the present disclosure. The present disclosure, in variousembodiments, configurations and aspects, includes providing devices andprocesses in the absence of items not depicted and/or described hereinor in various embodiments, configurations, or aspects hereof, includingin the absence of such items as may have been used in previous devicesor processes, e.g., for improving performance, achieving ease and/orreducing cost of implementation.

As used herein, the terms “may” and “may be” indicate a possibility ofan occurrence within a set of circumstances; a possession of a specifiedproperty, characteristic or function; and/or qualify another verb byexpressing one or more of an ability, capability, or possibilityassociated with the qualified verb. Accordingly, usage of “may” and “maybe” indicates that a modified term is apparently appropriate, capable,or suitable for an indicated capacity, function, or usage, while takinginto account that in some circumstances the modified term may sometimesnot be appropriate, capable, or suitable. For example, in somecircumstances an event or capacity can be expected, while in othercircumstances the event or capacity cannot occur—this distinction iscaptured by the terms “may” and “may be.”

The phrases “at least one”, “one or more”, and “and/or” are open-endedexpressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in operation. Forexample, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B and C”, “at leastone of A, B, or C”, “one or more of A, B, and C”, “one or more of A, B,or C” and “A, B, and/or C” means A alone, B alone, C alone, A and Btogether, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B and C together.

In this specification and the claims that follow, reference will be madeto a number of terms that have the following meanings. The terms “a” (or“an”) and “the” refer to one or more of that entity, thereby includingplural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. As such,the terms “a” (or “an”), “one or more” and “at least one” can be usedinterchangeably herein. Furthermore, references to “one embodiment”,“some embodiments”, “an embodiment” and the like are not intended to beinterpreted as excluding the existence of additional embodiments thatalso incorporate the recited features. Approximating language, as usedherein throughout the specification and claims, may be applied to modifyany quantitative representation that could permissibly vary withoutresulting in a change in the basic function to which it is related.Accordingly, a value modified by a term such as “about” is not to belimited to the precise value specified. In some instances, theapproximating language may correspond to the precision of an instrumentfor measuring the value. Terms such as “first,” “second,” “upper,”“lower”, etc. are used to identify one element from another, and unlessotherwise specified are not meant to refer to a particular order ornumber of elements.

As used in the claims, the word “comprises” and its grammaticalvariants, such as “including”, and “having” logically also subtend andinclude phrases of varying and differing extent such as for example, butnot limited thereto, “consisting essentially of” and “consisting of.”Where necessary, ranges have been supplied, and those ranges areinclusive of all sub ranges there between. It is to be expected thatvariations in these ranges will suggest themselves to a practitionerhaving ordinary skill in the art and, where not already dedicated to thepublic, the appended claims should cover those variations.

The terms “determine”, “calculate” and “compute,” and variationsthereof, as used herein, are used interchangeably and include any typeof methodology, process, mathematical operation or technique.

The foregoing discussion of the present disclosure has been presentedfor purposes of illustration and description. The foregoing is notintended to limit the present disclosure to the form or forms disclosedherein. In the foregoing Detailed Description for example, variousfeatures of the present disclosure are grouped together in one or moreembodiments, configurations, or aspects, for the purpose of streamliningthe disclosure. The features of the embodiments, configurations, oraspects of the present disclosure, may be combined in alternateembodiments, configurations, or aspects other than those discussedabove. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflectingan intention that the present disclosure requires more features than areexpressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claimsreflect, devices, systems, and methods may lie in less than all featuresof a single foregoing disclosed embodiment, configuration, or aspect.Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated into this DetailedDescription, with each claim standing on its own as a separateembodiment of the present disclosure.

Moreover, the description of the present disclosure has includeddescriptions of one or more embodiments, configurations, or aspects, andcertain variations and modifications, other variations, combinations,and modifications that are within the scope of the present disclosure,as may be within the skill and knowledge of those in the art afterunderstanding the present disclosure. Furthermore, the disclosureincludes alternative embodiments, configurations, or aspects, to theextent permitted, including alternate, interchangeable and/or equivalentstructures, functions, ranges or steps to those claimed, whether or notsuch alternate, interchangeable and/or equivalent structures, functions,ranges or steps are disclosed herein.

Advances in science and technology may make equivalents andsubstitutions possible that are not now contemplated by reason of theimprecision of language; these variations should be covered by theappended claims. This written description uses examples to disclose themethod, machine and computer-readable medium, including the best mode,and also to enable any person of ordinary skill in the art to practicethese, including making and using any devices or systems and performingany incorporated methods. The patentable scope thereof is defined by theclaims, and may include other examples that occur to those of ordinaryskill in the art.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for automatic luminaire locationidentification and group assignment, comprising: a visual lightcommunication (VLC)/dark light communication (DLC) sensor configured tocapture light data from at least one luminaire and transmit the lightdata to a first gateway; a sensor subsystem configured to measure atleast an actual light intensity of the luminaire at the luminaire; and,a server in data communication with the first gateway and sensorsubsystem, wherein the light data includes at least an identification ofthe luminaire and an intensity of the light and direction of theluminaire from which the light is received at the VLC/DLC sensor, thefirst gateway is configured to transmit the light data to the server,the sensor subsystem is configured to transmit the actual lightintensity of the luminaire to the server either directly or via thefirst gateway or a second gateway, and the server is configured togenerate a map of luminaire locations based on the light data and theactual light intensity for each luminaire.
 2. The system of claim 1,wherein the server is further configured to calculate a distance fromthe VLC/DLC sensor to each luminaire from which light is received at theVLC/DLC sensor based at least in part on a comparison of the lightintensity received at the VLC/DLC sensor and the actual light intensityfor each luminaire.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the server isfurther configured to assign each luminaire to a group of luminairesbased at least in part on the distance of each luminaire from theVLC/DLC sensor.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the VLC/DLC sensor isgeometrically shaped and includes multiple faces in at least one of a 2Dsurface, a semi 2D surface, a 3D surface, and a semi 3D surface.
 5. Thesystem of claim 4, wherein the VLC/DLC sensor is a ring shapeddirectional sensor.
 6. The system of claim 4, wherein the VLC/DLC sensoris a cube shaped directional sensor.
 7. The system of claim 4, whereinthe VLC/DLC sensor is a pyramid shaped directional sensor.
 8. The systemof claim 1, wherein the sensor subsystem includes at least oneenvironment sensor and one color sensor.
 9. The system of claim 8,wherein the environment sensor includes at least one of a low-resolutionimage sensor, ambient light sensor, orientation sensor, movementdetection sensor, and temperature sensor.
 10. The system of claim 8,wherein the color sensor is an up looking sensor that faces theluminaire directly to measure the actual light intensity of theluminaire.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is furtherconfigured to calculate a distance from the VLC/DLC sensor to eachluminaire from which light is received at the VLC/DLC sensor based atleast in part on a dimming level for each luminaire.
 12. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the at least one server is a cloud server.
 13. A methodof automatic luminaire location identification and group assignment,comprising: turning on at least one luminaire via a first gateway;capturing light data from the luminaire at a visual light communication(VLC)/dark light communication (DLC) sensor; measuring with an uplooking sensor an actual light intensity of the luminaire at theluminaire; transmitting the light data and actual light intensity to aserver either directly or via the first gateway or a second gateway;identifying the luminaire based at least in part on the light data fromthe luminaire; and, creating with the server a map of luminairelocations based at least in part on the light data and the actual lightintensity.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the light data includesat least a light intensity and a direction of the luminaire from whichthe light is received at the VLC/DLC sensor.
 15. The method of claim 14,further comprising assigning an exact location address to each luminairein the map of luminaire locations.
 16. The method of claim 15, furthercomprising grouping with the server luminaires that communicate with theVLC/DLC sensor and/or associated luminaire.
 17. The method of claim 14,further comprising capturing environmental data via at least oneenvironment sensor and transmitting the environmental data to at leastone of the first gateway and the second gateway.
 18. The method of claim14, wherein the VLC/DLC sensor is at least one of a ring shapeddirectional sensor, a cube shaped directional sensor, and a pyramidshaped directional sensor.
 19. A system for automatic luminaire locationidentification and group assignment, comprising: a visual lightcommunication (VLC)/dark light communication (DLC) sensor configured todetect light data to identify a luminaire and measure a light intensityand a direction of the luminaire from which the light is received at theVLC/DLC sensor, and an up looking sensor configured to face the at leastone luminaire directly and determine an actual light intensity of theluminaire at the luminaire.
 20. The system of claim 19, furthercomprising a server configured to generate a map of luminaire locationsbased at least in part on the light intensity and direction of theluminaire from which the light is received at the VLC/DLC sensor and theactual light intensity of the luminaire at the luminaire.